PREGAME NOTES: Dunning sent down, but not before getting plenty of praise from his manager

I’ve covered this team full-time for nearly two full seasons and I’ve never seen AT&T Park the way it is right now. It’s just quiet, really quiet. Not a lot of media today, not a lot of fans who had field passes, not a whole lot of people here early. I guess that’s no surprise. The Giants come into this weekend’s series with the Cubs at 46-55. The Cubs, who packed up and started selling weeks ago, are 45-55.

“We’re all disappointed with where we’re at,” manager Bruce Bochy said. “I don’t think any of us saw us being where we are at.”

Knowing that rumors are flying, Bochy pulled several players aside this week and told them to ignore the outside noise.

“You can’t think about what’s going on,” he said. “You can’t control that. I think sometimes they do think about that. Sure, they’d like to stay together, but at the same time we have to do what needs to be done to get better.”

On that note, the Giants made a minor move. Guillermo Moscoso was given a minor league deal but he could be here as soon as tomorrow. The Giants are still trying to finalize their plans.

“He’s someone we’ve had interest in,” Bochy said. “He’s a guy with a good arm that we think a lot of.”
The Moscoso move is not connected to the Dunning move. Jake was sent back to Triple-A Fresno in part because Bochy wanted to give Marco Scutaro two full days off, as he just did with Buster Posey. Scutaro continues to deal with back flareups.

In order to make sure they have enough infield depth, the Giants activated Joaquin Arias. Dunning has pitched well, posting a 2.84 ERA, but he had pitched the last four games.

“He did, really, a terrific job,” Bochy said. “This young kid came up ahead of schedule and I loved the way he handled himself. But four days in a row, he was going to get at least two or three days off.”

It’s the reality of the schedule. Dunning was the tired arm, like George Kontos earlier this week. Dunning took it in stride, though.

“He said he got nervous,” Bochy said, laughing. “He said, ‘Gosh, I thought you were going to ask me to play second base.”

No, Dunning is not the next Aubrey Huff. He’ll be back as soon as the Giants can get him back up here. Aside from the overall numbers, Dunning impressed with his ability to bounce back from a grand slam that he gave up to the Mets. Five of the 24-year-old’s next six appearances were scoreless.

“Sure, you watch that moment, the next hitter and the next time he pitches,” Bochy said. “This game is easy when everything is going well. When you have to deal with something like that, the good ones put it behind them. He did a great job of it.”

— Nate Schierholtz is back, and he’s hitting cleanup. Dale Sveum told reporters that Nate will likely hit in that spot for a while. He’s hitting .280 with 13 homers and 22 doubles.

— The Giants starters have a 4.75 group ERA. That’s last in the National League. The last time the Giants had the worst starter’s ERA in the NL at any point after the All-Star break? Try 1991, when they had a 4.36 ERA on Sept. 14.

Seems to be a lot of smoke around, judging by Sabean and Bochy statements. Team has no spark, but the smoke has to come from somewhere and i don’t think the dernier cri is Brian’s latest dumpster dive to pick up Moscoso.

There is more in the works, so my thought is that Sabes is hanging in the weeds like some big black bass, waiting for the most tempting offer/s for players as yet unnamed, except speculatively on this blog and many other sites.

Within approximately 124 hours we should know who’s going and who is coming. My question is will the reconstruction target 2014 or 2015?

“Jake was sent back to Triple-A Fresno in part because Bochy wanted to give Marco Scutaro two full days off”

Does this make any sense to anybody here? Maybe I need to drink more wine to be on the same vibe as Bochy.
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“In order to make sure they have enough infield depth, the Giants activated Joaquin Arias.”

So, I’ll presume Arias is actually going to be at the game in time? Okay, then sending Dunning down I guess makes sense… Kinda. I hope they haven’t rushed Arias back too early. Hope he’s really healed up. No point in doing something silly like that in a lost season.
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“— The Giants starters have a 4.75 group ERA. That’s last in the National League. The last time the Giants had the worst starter’s ERA in the NL at any point after the All-Star break? Try 1991, when they had a 4.36 ERA on Sept. 14.”

So, the worst they’ve been previously was 1991 at a 4.36 ERA. So we are worse than worst? Guess it’s good to be bad if we are looking at the 2014 draft board… Gloriously terrible. A harmonious confluence of $uckitude.

Funny, ironic… But I recall using a HR chart that I really loved. But haven’t used it since I went on to check out Nate’s third-deck blast at Coors. (oh, that was SWEET!). The chart was awesome, large, easy to use. Can’t for the life of me find it again.

I think it even allowed rollovers to give data, like distance carried, etc.

I’d predicate any moves on the starting pitching, if the view is the starting pitching in the second half is going to be mediocre, I wouldn’t make any moves at all, at least not with any significant prospects. Let’s not have a Zach Wheeler “fiasco”

GIANTS need to at least trade pieces they are not going to bring back next year if at all possible. I remember in many seasons past when the GIANTS would be out of contention and had an opportunity to execute that strategy but failed to do so.
Main thing is the GIANTS need to be more active in scouting/signing in the International free agent market and signing younger players with upside in the American free agent market this offseason. A OF with pop in LF &,RF a couple starters, bullpen help and bench players are on the want/to do list. I am going to be curious to see how Sabean makes it all happen through free agency and trades.

Funny how things work. First, remembering a website based on when I last used it in 2011 to track Nate’s 3rd deck tater.

Now, looking at who threw that pitch… Clayton Mortensen! Gosh, his name is familiar. I was just looking at BOS fan sites and comments and they are still fuming about the dumb trade of Scutaro (for Mortensen from COL!) in order to basically clear CBT luxury tax space… So they could sign… Cody Ross.

The moving of Scoot was nothing about wanting to let him go. It was about a complicated “option” in his contract, that if exercised would’ve had the AAV of his contract trigger something to put them about $6M over the luxury tax threshold.

Scutaro was traded just to not go into the Luxury Tax (CBT) threshold! And they used that cleared payroll space/cushion to then sign Cody Ross. lol.

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If you think BOS fans are mad about letting Scoots go… Check out the fan pages for COL… Livid. And hey COL Dan O’Dowd… Thanks for the cash compensation too!

I hope Nate goes off and points to Bochy while he’s rounding the bases. Bochy single handedly prevented this guy from being a very servicable big league player. Nate could have garnered this attention and a decent pay day long ago if it wasn’t for Bochy’s refusal to give him a chance.

It’s quiet? No one is there? Tickets are cheaper? And yet we know that no matter how few people are there it will be . . . (wait for it) . . . ANOTHER SELL OUT for the Giants!!!!!! I can’t tell you how many games we’ve been to this year when there where hugh blocks of empty seats in sections near us – seats that were obviously never sold – unless they were sold as a block to some group who decided to cancel their trip. Very unlikely.

is this a sign that the phillies will begin a fire sale? or is it a sign that they still believe in a playoff spot? i think that this signing means that they are focusing on contending in the future and will begin a fire sale soon because of the fact that now a (possibly) young, good pitcher has signed for foreseeable future.

M&P: Agreed that Bochy is the prime reason why Nate plays against SF this weekend. Nate #2 could well be the much maligned too tall Texan who plays 1B for the Giants. This year could have been his breakout season. Continued mistreatment by Bochy has stuck BB9 into a stalled-out zone where he is not coming through with the walk-offs and other game-changing heroics he did earlier in the season.

The potential downside of Bochy’s misuse of Belt, though, is significantly greater than that of Schierholtz. If one considers his jolt through the minors and rapid rise to The Show, BB9 still has the potential to become a force in ML baseball. If HE comes back to haunt the Giants it would all be on our manager. Sad part of this is that the ownership circle is far more likely to retain BB15 than BB9.

P.S. H-Boston – I’ve known about the Cape Cod League for years. Wood bats. Lots of great players have come out of that league. There’s also the Alaska Baseball League. Barry Bonds, Jeff Kent and J.T. Snow played in that league.

SCJ:
“If the Phillies are doing a fire sale, Utley and Lee are the prizes.”

Well, I’m not sure Utley is much of a ‘get’ anymore. And trading for him is just silly, he’s a free agent in 2014.

Cliff Lee has a limited no-trade blocking 21 teams. Someone would basically be paying the back-loaded end of a pricey contract. That is, the lower productivity at the higher price. How high? Well, about $10M for this year, $25M for 2014 & 2015, and a $12.5M buyout for 2016. That is about $72.5M for just over two years of service.

I’m not sure the Phillies even have any good prospects they can throw in to make it worthwhile to take that deal.

Can’t say either is a ‘prize’ but Lee should be a very good pitcher for at least 2014. If a team can somehow justify Lee for 2014 being worth over $50M, then I guess the Phils can find a taker. I’ve heard there’s one born every minute.

Leadoff double followed by flailing, flailing and failing, the latter being courtesy of Sabean’s recent dumpster-dive from KC and Bochy’s vet love. This team is so demoralized they are having a tough time scoring against Jackson and the Cubbies.

Francouer is the new Tejada (Klesko, Roberts, Winn’s last season+, Rowand, Finley, Huff, etc, etc. When he is in the lineup I scream at my TV and yell, “why!!!!!!”
Give Bochy a bum vet and he will fall deeply in love very quick…give him an impressionable, young talent in need of patience and consistent playing time and he will do his best to yoyo him in and out of the lineup and ruin his confidence and his career.

I was thinking that watching the game on WGN (Cubs feed) tonight would be a nice change from K&K, but not so much. Len Kasper is a good PBP man, Jim (two silhouettes on the) Deshaies seems OK as analyst, but I’m missing K&K, to be honest.

Better get us Nick Castellanos AND Hernan Perez if El Tigres are in such desperate need. And Scoots’ contract is cheap comparing his productivity to cost. Scutaro is already a 2.5 WAR player this year and making $8M.

Amy G has been traded for a horse with a high pitched voice. I think it is a great deal for both sides… Especially since the horse will not be on TV annoying us with worthless banter and talk while interrupting our baseball game.

Matthew,
I had a friend named Matt(hew) growing up but he never let anybody call him Matthew because the only time he ever heard “Matthew” was when he was in trouble. We could call him, Matt, Mutt, Meat, Mope, Matty… you know, just not Matthew. So, if I use the shortened version, it’s just habit. (Since I notice you don’t)

I remember that game in which Benjamin got six hits. I think it was against the Cubs, maybe 1995 or 1996? I remember thinking “here’s a guy who can’t hit a lick, and he gets SIX HITS in one game? That’s baseball!”

Just looked it up, Benjamin’s three-game series at Cubs, June 13-15, 1995. Three games, Benjamin goes 11-16 with a double and a HR, and three RBI. Definitely the highlight of his career, in his last year with the Giants.

This would’ve been the spot where Francouer could’ve faced a LH RP. Glad that didn’t happen!

My tolerance for Belt is really being tested. The way he didn’t clear out of the way on that duck snort… Tagged out midway between 3B and home? His running into double plays two games in a row. The HR trot on a ball that didn’t go out…

The one that REALLY irks me most… I was checking his Twitter months ago. Some girl tweeted him a question:

“I’m a student. Do you have any good advice for staying awake for all-nighters?”

Belt’s response: “Adderall.”

Just about the ENTIRE Giants Twitter universe tried to assuage this… Tweeting things like “You mean ONLY if you have a medical condition” and “If she has a prescription for it, right.”

Dude. Giants PR needed to jump in and halt those tweets. Not loving that, Belt.

#2) How much would you project on Hunter Pence if he wasn’t a Giant and you knew he was a pending free agent? Would your roster plans include “sign Hunter Pence for 4 years 60 million dollars, he’ll hit .280 with 25 HRs and good defense and lot of hustle…” ?

Sam:
“Carmot, Where did you learn math from. Even is Arias can’t play, the bench would have the same amount of players as before as Arias replaced a pitcher. Also, Arias replaced Dunning, so if Arias can’t play, you don’t subtract 2 players from 25, only 1.”
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Like I said, I didn’t know if Arias made it to the game on time, with a late call up. That would be ONE player short: Arias. If Dunning was already optioned, he isn’t there. That would be TWO: Dunning. The report said there are only 11 pitchers.

I ain’t great at maths, but I think I done did okay on this one. Was worried, info wasn’t clear to me earlier. My bad.

While it is replacing one with the other, earlier I just didn’t know if Arias was even there yet. Kruk answered my question just a bit ago, Arias is in the dugout.

“OK, today’s optioning of Jake Dunning and going with 11 pitchers makes a little more sense if you can follow this:

Bochy wanted Marco Scutaro to have two consecutive days off to rest his back, just as he wanted Buster Posey to have two days off in a row. But Bochy didn’t want them both off at the same time, so he sat Posey on Wednesday and Scutaro tonight. With Scutaro out, Bochy wanted more coverage on the infield, so Joaquin Arias was activated from the DL.

From what we hear, Moscoso will join the Giants on Saturday, restoring the 12-man pitching staff, and a position player will go down. Kensuke Tanaka seems to be the logical candidate.”

Not sure, but I think Pence should be worth about 4/$56M, or an AAV of $14M MAX.

With the salary escalation being what it is, and the way top players are extended to not reach FA until they often hit their year 32 or 33 age… Maybe I could see a team going 4/$60M. I don’t think he’d get a 5-year offer of $67.5M.

Hey look the cubs are out of it and their manager is not playing by the book. How about bochy trying some of that. Following the righty lefty matchups have gotten us where? If Im playing craps at the casino I know I have the best odds of winning. Except the house still has the odds in their favor so if the rollers keep crapping out I need to go to the don’t come line or walk away. Bochy does neither.

Brandi Buckner Belt simply cost the Giants this game.
Not sure what about him has a few stating – he’s our 1B of the future. Is is the 15 or less HRs per year? The sub .270 average? The lack of extra base hits as compared to even an average ML 1B, and tonight he does his impression of Buckner and loses the game.

Belt’s on the market too at this point. And acquiring Mancoso – is that a joke?
Cheap and useless = another 2013 Sabean acquisition.

@Polioptila Veintiocho
Why do you post here nummnutts??
I skip over all your anti Giants dribble. Are you a fan of the Dodgers who haven’t sniffed a World Series in 25+ years? Yeah, thought so and STFU.

totalfan62 says:
July 26th, 2013 at 10:17 pm
That’s why I never liked that “hold ‘em on then run back to your position” defense at 1B. It’s risky, and it just bit us on the butt. Gotta knock that ball down, BB9.
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I know you’re a huge Belt fan and will write anything to defend him, but what you wrote is a lie. Belt wasn’t holding the runner on. In fact he was at the edge of the outfield grass, no where near to holding the runner on, on a 3-2 count.

Matthew: The error did not make me happy at all I want my team to win every game but Belt has a lot of issues man. He’s not the answer . He wont be long for this franchise. I’ve tried to be patient with this cat but he makes it very hard to root for him.

@totalfan62-
Please go grab your 2012 Giants poms poms. This is 2013 and this has been an unmitigated disaster of a season not really caused by injuries. I said it was chairs on the Titanic a month+ ago and most everyone except Souza, rogue and a few others said I was crazy. Last place in a putrid division is where SF is at. Hate to be right but I was.

You & others love Belt – I truly wonder why. The stats of his don’t warrant loving him at all. 15 or less HRs per year? sub .270 average? penchant for striking out in keep RISP situations? The lack of extra base hits as compared to even an average ML 1B?

…Buckner with 105 RBI’s for the Cubs in ’82, 110 for the Red Sox in ’85.

Heck yeah I know how to use Baseball Reference !

You are right my man. Comparing a VERY good All Star 1B with 1 horrible play in the ’86 WS Buckner to a guy who’s had a pot of coffee in the Majors (Belt) is an insult to Buckner. I really like baseball reference too. Objectivity on players, helpful stats- stuff the Belt fringers should pay more attention too when evaluating his true talent level.

Baldy:
“I’ve tried to be patient with this cat but he makes it very hard to root for him.”
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I try very hard to base my opinions by stuff ON the field. I want to see our Giants succeed. I’ve only been a detractor of Belt in the sense that I felt he wasn’t playing up to the positional productivity of first base.

It was a REAL revelation when I went and directly compared him to many other MLB first basemen. He is above average. But tough to watch, and hard to understand at times…

I don’t really love him or hate him. But want him to do well to help the G’s do well. But the list of bone-headed stuff by him is really testing my last nerve. I thought it totally classless and *wrong* to tweet a suggestion for Adderall. I’ve tried to never hold that against his PLAY.

I’ve tried to be patient too. Tough to say it, but he exhibits that he might be a stripe short of a zebra a bit too often. If you get my meaning.

WOJ: THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU, could not have said it better then your #334 post. Krukow talkin about a wasted effort by Cain SO WHAT! Cain hasn’t given the G’s much of a chance to win lately so who cares.

I don’t feel redeemed the Giants are worse than the rotten Cubs in 2013.

Take LF as an example: EVERYONE on this blog knew Giants needed a bona fide LF – Sabean threw down DFAed Torres to craptoon with streaky bad and good 5ht OF Blanco to the fans. That’s a recipe for disaster and has been. When Torres slumped they threw a bone to the Asian fans with yippy armed no power old Tanaka and DFAed Francoeur and then sent down the one guy with pop who might show a pulse in LF = Pill on the garbage the guy can’t play defense. Well you know what TorresTenankaceur can’t play offense and are old and washed up. Give the PCL top hitter a chance once and for all.

Another glaring example is the Lincecum and Zito spots i nthe rotation – Linceucm was the worst NL starter last year stats wise and has lost 1-2 mph yearly since 2010 off his fastball. Sabean move to find a 6th starter backup = none. Zito’s best season last year with SF was barely above avg = Sabean move to counter a fall off this year = crickets.

Young pitchers starting for Giants = awful. Kikcme has been literally awful every time and Reds HRs hit off Surkamp are still in flight.

This was entirely preventable and the owners wanted to rake in the good will $$ this year. The sellout streak ending would speak volumes about fan discontent.

Go watch the replay on the belt Base running mistake and ask yourself if you saw the pitcher backing up home plate by turning his back and yelling not once but twice into the crowd that you would not try and score. Even bochy in the post game didn’t realize it. Someone will show the replay. Pitcher was an idiot and got lucky when the ball woke him up by the backstop he was cluelessly standing next to. Again facing the stands.

Injuries played a minor role in SF’s collapse. The biggest loss was actually Pagan. Apparently his fire and tenacity is missed terribly.

Pablo is hurt often b/c he lacks the discipline to be in shape to play. I cannot imagine being paid $5M + /year have the amazing talent Pablo has and throw most of it away by lack of discipline with his nightlife (Santa Cruz) and his personal eating choices.

I’m fine with the guy being thick and muscular. I’m not fine with his shape being a cross between golfer Craig Stadler approaching Jabba the Hut Jowls 2012 and earlier Dem Congressman Jerrold Nadler. That is the cuase of his freakish injuries and lack of range at 3B.

The LA Yankees who I despise had far more injury problems and overcame them.

Didn’t look to me like the Giants half-@$$ed it earlier this season. I think the Giants felt the weight of the championship almost from Day 1. They’ve pressed the entire season, a fact covered up by the come-from-behind victories earlier in the season. They put in the effort, but it didn’t add up this year and with injuries everything went south.

G’s are losing and can’t seem to recover bcuz they disrespected the div opponents. Sabes sat on his azz bcuz he did not believe the Bums and Snakes can win and so it goes. Once they started sliding, could not get it back. Now it is over. Listen to the delusional Marty on KNBR talking how many games back etc…hilarious.

I’d like to say something that might run counterpoint to most of the feelings here.

We can’t have it both ways. If we want to see the kids and what they can do, we have to accept some bad plays, games, losses as well. We got a chance to see if Abreu could be a bench option for 2014 and even bat in the 2-hole. Yeah, it’s pretty useless to let Francoeur take up space and a roster spot. Belt got to play and it did NOT go well. Our pitchers did well against a AAA.5-ish team.

But I must say… Pagan is ONE player and he hasn’t been the design behind this utter and epic fail. We got PLENTY of guys that are EXPECTED to be key contributors to our 2014 team. Sandoval. Belt. Crawford. They still have had opportunities to play to their potential. Even if Pagan is hurt and Scutaro wasn’t in there.

Goodness gracious. If our #3, #4, #5 hitters struggle to score one or two runs off Edwin Jackson, how we expect to score off playoff caliber pitchers in the post-season? No excuse that Pagan is hurt… Last I checked, only one batter stands in the box at a time. Just like any other game/situation, they have to help create their own success.

Didn’t look to me like the Giants half-@$$ed it earlier this season. I think the Giants felt the weight of the championship almost from Day 1. They’ve pressed the entire season, a fact covered up by the come-from-behind victories earlier in the season. They put in the effort, but it didn’t add up this year and with injuries everything went south.
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Wrong.

How do you feel the weight of the championship. You just won it. If you don’t win it in 2013, who cares? You’ve won it two out of the last three years.

That mentality would have allowed them to play loose.

Problem is they came in lazy and some were out of shape. And they treated spring training like a vacation at the mud baths in Napa.

And they treated the season like a lazy spring training exhibition. And it backfired.

There is no other explanation.

They DID NOT put in the effort. If that had, they wouldn’t be in last place losing to losers like the Marlins and Cubs and Brewers and Mets.

this team continues to find ways to lose. I thought when they were no hit it couldn’t get any worse, but they’ve topped that multiple times since then. I don’t know where to begin in shaking this team up, but right now you are looking at the same infield for next year and then pagan and who knows for the outfield. at what point do they giants realize you can’t platoon your first baseman for his entire career. if he’s not going to play every day, get someone who can

Bill Buckner was a fine player but to say Belt can’t carry his jock strap because of an error in a meaningless game is dumb, especially when a guy helped win WS the year before. Also Belt has potential to be much better than Buckner who really was over rated as a hitter (although I feel bad he is remembered for one play when game was lost by many). Belt is fine.

Wow. The Ray of Unshine just said something that totally made sense. And I’m not sure I’m even allowed to admit this here… But I actually *agreed* with him.

“If it’s painful for Giants fans that the Dodgers are in first, then they’re not Giants fans. Their problem is THEIR team. And one of the reasons the Dodgers are where they are now is because the Giants have vacated what has been their place in the National League West. Without pitching, without hitting, with spotty defense.

The failure is not L.A’s, the failure is San Francisco’s. So most Giants fans shouldn’t be worried about the Dodgers at all. They need to worry about what their team is failing to do night-in and night-out”

eric rodriguez. have you ever seem buckner play? you’ve got to be kidding me. belt is a platoon player. look at the back of their baseball cards and tell me who is over rated. ishikawa was a good defensive first baseman to, so what else has belt brought.

This is one pathetic if not inept offense that i have ever seen. the June swoon did them. And I blame SABEAN for not fixing the problems right away. He stand pat and didn’t do anything

MR. BRIAN SABEAN what do we expect of you to do now? Are we going to do the math? Tweak is always a wonderful thing, you know. Buy and Sell or both will do wonders to our boyhood team. And I will call you Trader Sabe.

i know the frustrations of this year are mounting, and i enjoy questionable humor myself at times, but i don’t see any need to write something like “yippy- armed” here. just saying it’s at least worth considering that some here have close ties to people from Japan.

Now they just don’t care. Even Sabean says he has thrown in the towel.

It all adds up to a disgraceful and embarrassing representative of baseball’s 2012 champion.

I don’t know why any of us waste our time.

Totally agree – my earlier frustration has been replaced with resignation this team is not very good, got complacent and doesn’t care all that much except to the point they need to put up individual stats to get paid next year.

“The Summer of Beer and Whiskey”, by Edward Achorn. A well documented chronicle of the game and pennant race circa 1883, as described by the voices of the time. The Major Leagues were as yet unsettled, but baseball was well on its way. This book is a must read for any true fan, or student of the game. It explores the style of play (no gloves!), the business/profit angles, the never changing ways of ball players and fans. Back then, they only used one ump, and he might’ve been bought. One staring pitcher pitched 27 innings, 3 complete games, in 3 days. Fascinating read for those of you so inclined. Now is a good time..

I am aggravated at Sabean for saying TWICE on KNBR that this may be a … “bad penny year”!! That is the LAST thing a team who is only at the time 6 games out, needs to hear from the GM! Bad form for him to share that on the air!

I am pissed at Belt for his stupid baserunning blunder tonight! This is not the first time this year he has run right into stupid out. The physical error that cost us the game I can forgive … physical errors happen to the best of them! But the stupid baserunning gaff cost us a possible big inning tonight .. and that is a mental mistake!

I’ve lived in NYC, and you are RIGHT. The standards there are much higher, and lackluster play is not well tolerated. I’ve often said (for example when Alex Smith was getting boo-ed at Candlestick)…

You think the players feel bad when getting boo’ed by their own fans? Try crickets, where there is total indifference and no interest and no crowds. MUCH worse. At least when fans boo, they are showing up. And in a weird way, showing their support.

I mean, they are basically saying, “We want better. We deserve better. We expect better.”

Certainly a large part of this Giants fans mentality is media-driven. The rhetoric of Two-in-Three still prevails. It’s like it paints over whatever failures they are producing. But it doesn’t. And it shouldn’t.

Part of this is the Giants organization “brainwashing” the fans into their prescribed ‘culture.’ I spoke much about this over the winter. When they say “pitching is the Gold Standard, and then we’ll see where our payroll stands to make improvements.” People buy into it.

Last winter, when Sabean said he didn’t expect payroll to go up… I IMMEDIATELY refuted his statement. I added up the salary increases and obligations. It wouldn’t stand at $130M. But the way it was presented, people didn’t EXPECT lots. So the slight incremental payroll raise, seemed like a lot. Like they were TRYING. Like they were spending. Even though it was only about a 4% raise. And not enough to get all our needs filled.

I asked here, how many teams wished they were only one or two pieces away from being true contenders. We were. And hardly a team in a decade can go into the season in that unique position. We failed to meet those needs. We just… failed.

Lists different writers opinions on Tigers trade options. One of those included Scutaro to the Tigers. Also mentions Mets Daniel Murphy as possibility. Tigers using Hernan Perez and Ramon Santiago at second.

seasonofweirdness, you just have to block it out. this site is no different than the rest of the world where we’re forced to deal with stupidity on a daily basis. better to ignore it and let them go through life being the way they are. it’s very noticeable. the warriors sucked. now they’re good and exciting. same with the niners. the sad part about the giants is that this was a team we saw click so good it took them to two championships. we have the pitching and money to hopefully make another few runs at this thing and hopefully get into legendary status. that’s what I want to see. the fall from grace was quick and painful and I definitely want to see a bigger set of balls from the front office to right the ship. watching the warriors and niners climb back to relevance was the direct result of ownership. if the giants want to fit in that mold (and the sharks represent that mold better than any of them) then it’s got to start at the top.

mavo, the biggest killer has been the fact that this team hasn’t been able to get timely, clutch hits for nearly three months. one roll over, ground ball swing after another. their plate discipline is horrendous.

MLBSF – I know I won’t change your mind, but of course you feel the weight of repeating a championship. I mean … just look at the reaction of everybody on here for their failure to mount a respectable run so far.

I also think Sabean was hoping the division was weak enough for us to sustain a LF platoon until the trade deadline, when he would go looking for help in the outfield and probably pitching. It was a calculated risk that obviously failed.

I would hope that when Belt takes the field today, everyone in the crowd boos him heartily. He needs to know that the fans do not appreciate bone-head plays. He needs the John Brodie treatment today, ala Kezar Stadium back in the day.
So, the future Hall of Fame manager sits down two games in a row a key batter in the lineup. Then he expects to win games. Not that it makes that much difference, but it could. Posey’s bat was missed Wednesday, and Scutaro’s Friday. Either or both could have contributed timely hits and perhaps the outcomes would have been different: six games back, not eight, and two more wins and two less losses in the standings.

chicekntorta: Think about this…2011 the same guys who got timely hits the season before couldn’t. That goes for Huff, Burrell, Torres, Schierholtz, Ross, etc. 2013 same thing. Blanco, Belt, Crawford, Pence, Sandoval; even Scutaro and Posey have had bad slumps. Who’d you rather have as a batting coach? Bam Bam or Chili Davis? There’s no batting coaching/instruction going on for these batters.

Hey Polio: is 1985 some kind of highlight of your life because the Giants were so bad then? Guess life sucked for you in 2010, 2011, 2002, 1989, and 1962 if you even were around then. I guess 1993 hurt too, with 103 wins. I guess any year the Giants do well overall life sucks for you. Did you cry last October when the Giants won the World Series?

Carmot: you are absolutely right. And it’s not like the Giants were forewarned that the Dodgers were going to spend to buy players. Now so far it hasn’t paid off for the Dodgers. And I hope it doesn’t (GO REDS, go any team the Dodgers play against the rest of the year!). But the Giants (Sabean/club ownership) did NOTHING to improve this club last winter. Letting go of Melky Cabrera: that was an obvious need to fill in left field, and last I checked, there were outfielders available: Shane Victorino for one, and didn’t he want to play on the Giants? Even Cody Ross would have been better than getting back Andres Torres. Not replacing Ryan Theriot, or trying to re-sign him; you can’t expect a 37 year old (Scutaro) to play every day, no matter how good his bat, but his replacements aren’t major league players. Almost all the Giants’ replacement players this year haven’t been major league caliber, and that says a lot about the farm system: where’s our Junior Lake or Yasiel Puig? Again, lots of money being made from sales of Panda hats, jerseys, and all those sell-outs, and not much to show for it. Yes, the Red Sox and Yankees and Phils fans wouldn’t put up with it!!!!!
I would expect that when the Giants take the field tonight, Belt gets the business from the crowd. He needs to hear the boos, and hear them well, and get serious about his play. Same with Crawford. Look at him when he gets into the batter’s box: it’s like he could give a s***!

Regarding trades: I don’t see any trades coming up. Scutaro? doubt he’s going to be trades. Same with Pence. Those guys are valuable to this team right now. Now over the winter some trades can and should be made. I’d try to work a deal to unload Sandoval, Belt, and Pill to get a good pitcher and a good infielder. And by the way, regarding Wilson, I advocated trading him and a prospect to the Red Sox for Pedroia two years ago. Geez, Wheeler and Wilson for Pedroia: now that trade could have worked out! No, Sabean got rid of Wheeler for than rental Beltran. Worst trade in SF history since Y.A. Tittle went to the Giants for Lou Cordileone.